Or that's another fine result then !

One thing that the current financial climate seems to have done, is to take
customer service back a couple of decades. Big companies now seem a bit more
inclined to help, to hang onto the customers that they have.

A couple of weeks back, I reported here on the excellent service I received
from B&Q regarding my floor threshold. Now, I have had occasion to contact
Crosswater, regarding a spare part that I needed for a bath filler assembly.
Not only did a representative reply to my e-mail very quickly, he told me
that if I sent him my mailing address, he would be very happy to just send
me the part. It arrived today in a jiffy bag at no charge. Right part, very
quick.

So my congratulations and award for outstanding customer service goes this
week to Crosswater. Well done to them !

Arfa

Arfa Daily wrote:
Or that's another fine result then !

One thing that the current financial climate seems to have done, is to take
customer service back a couple of decades. Big companies now seem a bit more
inclined to help, to hang onto the customers that they have.

A couple of weeks back, I reported here on the excellent service I received
from B&Q regarding my floor threshold. Now, I have had occasion to contact
Crosswater, regarding a spare part that I needed for a bath filler assembly.
Not only did a representative reply to my e-mail very quickly, he told me
that if I sent him my mailing address, he would be very happy to just send
me the part. It arrived today in a jiffy bag at no charge. Right part, very
quick.

So my congratulations and award for outstanding customer service goes this
week to Crosswater. Well done to them !

Arfa


Sadly there is a downside as well! I have a shredder, made in the USA,
which needed the lower engine casing replacing under guarantee. The
local repair company were very helpful, handling everything relating to
the claim for me. Sadly however getting the part took a long time. The
reason for this is that the repair company at al up the chain to and
including the manufacturer have run down their stocks of spares to cut
costs. As a result I had to wait for the part to come all the way down
the chain.

"Broadback" wrote in message
...



Sadly there is a downside as well! I have a shredder, made in the USA,
which needed the lower engine casing replacing under guarantee. The local
repair company were very helpful, handling everything relating to the
claim for me. Sadly however getting the part took a long time. The reason
for this is that the repair company at al up the chain to and including
the manufacturer have run down their stocks of spares to cut costs. As a
result I had to wait for the part to come all the way down the chain.

Over the past couple of decades I've worked for several manufacturing
companies who had adopted various stupid work philosophies such as JIT (Just
in Time), TPM (Total Production Management) etc. The bottom line was that
they neglected to keep anything in the stores, whether it be spare parts for
equipment, basic materials to actually make the products or indeed the
products themselves (in case of a rush order). It was deemed as uneconomic
to forward plan!

Don.

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
Don wrote:
"Broadback" wrote in message
...


Sadly there is a downside as well! I have a shredder, made in the USA,
which needed the lower engine casing replacing under guarantee. The
local repair company were very helpful, handling everything relating to
the claim for me. Sadly however getting the part took a long time. The
reason for this is that the repair company at al up the chain to and
including the manufacturer have run down their stocks of spares to cut
costs. As a result I had to wait for the part to come all the way down
the chain.

Over the past couple of decades I've worked for several manufacturing
companies who had adopted various stupid work philosophies such as JIT
(Just in Time), TPM (Total Production Management) etc. The bottom line
was that they neglected to keep anything in the stores, whether it be
spare parts for equipment, basic materials to actually make the products
or indeed the products themselves (in case of a rush order). It was
deemed as uneconomic to forward plan!

Don.
Like all these things, there are cost benefit analyses to be done.

It doesn't make sense to NOT stock e.g screws, and it doesn't make sense
TO stock complete assemblies you sell maybe once every 5 years..

As with all these things, if they get implemented by idiots who can't do
sums, chaos results and profit goes down, not up.

One example was when production came to a halt because a conveyor belt motor
failed....no spare in the stores, so the nigtshift manager had to call in an
agency worker who stood between two belts for four hours & manhandled
plastic drums from one belt to the other until a new motor could be brought
in!

Don.

Don wrote:
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
Don wrote:
"Broadback" wrote in message
...

Sadly there is a downside as well! I have a shredder, made in the USA,
which needed the lower engine casing replacing under guarantee. The
local repair company were very helpful, handling everything relating to
the claim for me. Sadly however getting the part took a long time. The
reason for this is that the repair company at al up the chain to and
including the manufacturer have run down their stocks of spares to cut
costs. As a result I had to wait for the part to come all the way down
the chain.
Over the past couple of decades I've worked for several manufacturing
companies who had adopted various stupid work philosophies such as JIT
(Just in Time), TPM (Total Production Management) etc. The bottom line
was that they neglected to keep anything in the stores, whether it be
spare parts for equipment, basic materials to actually make the products
or indeed the products themselves (in case of a rush order). It was
deemed as uneconomic to forward plan!

Don.
Like all these things, there are cost benefit analyses to be done.

It doesn't make sense to NOT stock e.g screws, and it doesn't make sense
TO stock complete assemblies you sell maybe once every 5 years..

As with all these things, if they get implemented by idiots who can't do
sums, chaos results and profit goes down, not up.

One example was when production came to a halt because a conveyor belt motor
failed....no spare in the stores, so the nigtshift manager had to call in an
agency worker who stood between two belts for four hours & manhandled
plastic drums from one belt to the other until a new motor could be brought
in!

Don.


trouble is firm are run by "bean counters" having the spare in stock was
probably less profitable than 4 hours labour for an agency worker

a company I worked for charged firms for 24 emergency cover for computer
servers and then never employed any engineers to be on standby, they
would pay a fix penalty fee for missing the call out as this was cheaper
than paying engineer

--
Kevin R
Reply address works

Kevin wrote:
Don wrote:
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
Don wrote:
"Broadback" wrote in message
...

Sadly there is a downside as well! I have a shredder, made in the
USA, which needed the lower engine casing replacing under
guarantee. The local repair company were very helpful, handling
everything relating to the claim for me. Sadly however getting the
part took a long time. The reason for this is that the repair
company at al up the chain to and including the manufacturer have
run down their stocks of spares to cut costs. As a result I had to
wait for the part to come all the way down the chain.
Over the past couple of decades I've worked for several
manufacturing companies who had adopted various stupid work
philosophies such as JIT (Just in Time), TPM (Total Production
Management) etc. The bottom line was that they neglected to keep
anything in the stores, whether it be spare parts for equipment,
basic materials to actually make the products or indeed the products
themselves (in case of a rush order). It was deemed as uneconomic to
forward plan!

Don.
Like all these things, there are cost benefit analyses to be done.

It doesn't make sense to NOT stock e.g screws, and it doesn't make
sense TO stock complete assemblies you sell maybe once every 5 years..

As with all these things, if they get implemented by idiots who can't
do sums, chaos results and profit goes down, not up.

One example was when production came to a halt because a conveyor belt
motor failed....no spare in the stores, so the nigtshift manager had
to call in an agency worker who stood between two belts for four hours
& manhandled plastic drums from one belt to the other until a new
motor could be brought in!

Don.

trouble is firm are run by "bean counters" having the spare in stock was
probably less profitable than 4 hours labour for an agency worker

a company I worked for charged firms for 24 emergency cover for computer
servers and then never employed any engineers to be on standby, they
would pay a fix penalty fee for missing the call out as this was cheaper
than paying engineer

conversely when my modem got struck by lightning. it was replaced FOC
'because the amount of money we would make on service is insufficient to
cover the cost of administering returns'

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Don wrote:
"Broadback" wrote in message
...


Sadly there is a downside as well! I have a shredder, made in the
USA, which needed the lower engine casing replacing under
guarantee. The local repair company were very helpful, handling
everything relating to the claim for me. Sadly however getting the
part took a long time. The reason for this is that the repair
company at al up the chain to and including the manufacturer have
run down their stocks of spares to cut costs. As a result I had to
wait for the part to come all the way down the chain.

Over the past couple of decades I've worked for several manufacturing
companies who had adopted various stupid work philosophies such as
JIT (Just in Time), TPM (Total Production Management) etc. The
bottom line was that they neglected to keep anything in the stores,
whether it be spare parts for equipment, basic materials to actually
make the products or indeed the products themselves (in case of a
rush order). It was deemed as uneconomic to forward plan!

Don.


Like all these things, there are cost benefit analyses to be done.

It doesn't make sense to NOT stock e.g screws, and it doesn't make
sense TO stock complete assemblies you sell maybe once every 5 years..

As with all these things, if they get implemented by idiots who can't
do sums, chaos results and profit goes down, not up.

Main problem is they are implemented by ****** managers who know bugger all
about the business they are in.

The 'myth of management' decrees that management is a science in itself and
knowledge & experience of a specific industry isnt necessary.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

The Medway Handyman wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Don wrote:
"Broadback" wrote in message
...

Sadly there is a downside as well! I have a shredder, made in the
USA, which needed the lower engine casing replacing under
guarantee. The local repair company were very helpful, handling
everything relating to the claim for me. Sadly however getting the
part took a long time. The reason for this is that the repair
company at al up the chain to and including the manufacturer have
run down their stocks of spares to cut costs. As a result I had to
wait for the part to come all the way down the chain.
Over the past couple of decades I've worked for several manufacturing
companies who had adopted various stupid work philosophies such as
JIT (Just in Time), TPM (Total Production Management) etc. The
bottom line was that they neglected to keep anything in the stores,
whether it be spare parts for equipment, basic materials to actually
make the products or indeed the products themselves (in case of a
rush order). It was deemed as uneconomic to forward plan!

Don.


Like all these things, there are cost benefit analyses to be done.

It doesn't make sense to NOT stock e.g screws, and it doesn't make
sense TO stock complete assemblies you sell maybe once every 5 years..

As with all these things, if they get implemented by idiots who can't
do sums, chaos results and profit goes down, not up.

Main problem is they are implemented by ****** managers who know bugger all
about the business they are in.

The 'myth of management' decrees that management is a science in itself and
knowledge & experience of a specific industry isnt necessary.


Well that is of course completely true, in the sense that the
disciplines of management are independent of any particular business,
but that gets interpreted by managers to mean 'I don't need to know
about your business to implement Good Management' which is of course
utter ********.


The difference between a good manager and a bad one is that the good one
is a servant of his workforce: he is there to streamline what they do by
examining what goes wrong, and coming up with ways to make it right.
Bad managers think in terms of leadership and authority, and issuing
directives.

Like G Brown.

The Medway Handyman coughed up some electrons that declared:


Main problem is they are implemented by ****** managers who know bugger
all about the business they are in.

The 'myth of management' decrees that management is a science in itself
and knowledge & experience of a specific industry isnt necessary.

That's certainly been true of all bar one, perhaps two, of the places I've
worked. Current place, the managers are the engineers, so it works.

Everywhere else, usually my immediate boss has been great, mostly because
he/she has done largely the same work I did, or has done recently. Once you
get a little up the chain, the clue factor seems to drop off exponentially.

Sad, but Britain's strong point is not it's ability to produce good
management. For a particular case in point, look at that jerkoff who wiped
out GEC after Weinstock retired.

Tim

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Don" saying
something like:

As with all these things, if they get implemented by idiots who can't do
sums, chaos results and profit goes down, not up.

One example was when production came to a halt because a conveyor belt motor
failed....no spare in the stores, so the nigtshift manager had to call in an
agency worker who stood between two belts for four hours & manhandled
plastic drums from one belt to the other until a new motor could be brought
in!

Such things are priceless. When I was repairing lift trucks, an edict
came down from HO that every van should only have one part of each spare
- that's right, van stock consisted of just one spare part of each type.
Utter madness.
Chaos and waste followed, as engineers had to make trips back to the
depots to obtain more parts as they were needed, instead of being able
to go from one job to another, as they used to. Then, the stupid
*******s in charge started putting pressure on the engineers to get more
billable hours in.
I left that cowboy outfit to its own devices.

"Grimly Curmudgeon" wrote in message
...
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Don" saying
something like:

As with all these things, if they get implemented by idiots who can't do
sums, chaos results and profit goes down, not up.

One example was when production came to a halt because a conveyor belt
motor
failed....no spare in the stores, so the nigtshift manager had to call in
an
agency worker who stood between two belts for four hours & manhandled
plastic drums from one belt to the other until a new motor could be
brought
in!

Such things are priceless. When I was repairing lift trucks, an edict
came down from HO that every van should only have one part of each spare
- that's right, van stock consisted of just one spare part of each type.
Utter madness.
Chaos and waste followed, as engineers had to make trips back to the
depots to obtain more parts as they were needed, instead of being able
to go from one job to another, as they used to. Then, the stupid
*******s in charge started putting pressure on the engineers to get more
billable hours in.
I left that cowboy outfit to its own devices.
Hi, I had a similar experience. The stores manager decided that we must cut
down on wasteage. You were not allowed to have a new tin of WD40 from the
stores unless you handed in an empty one. Later I found two of my fitters
almost in tears with laughter. I was taken round the corner and saw a queue
of about twenty fitters waiting by the rubbish skip. They were waiting for
the stores staff to empty the empty WD40 tins into the skip. Nothing like
using the system to defeat the system!
Robbie

Roberts wrote:
You were not allowed to have a new tin of WD40 from the
stores unless you handed in an empty one. Later I found two of my fitters
almost in tears with laughter. I was taken round the corner and saw a queue
of about twenty fitters waiting by the rubbish skip. They were waiting for
the stores staff to empty the empty WD40 tins into the skip.

When I was at school, they had recently laid out a new Rugby pitch but
were unable to use it as such because of a liberal seeding of Hampshire
flint in this former farmland. So a standard punishment became the
collection of stones from this pitch - miscreants were sent out with a
bucket (or more, depending on severity of crime) to crawl along the
grass picking up stones and not return until the bucket was full.

Thing is, when the full bucket was presented for inspection, the teacher
involved wasn't about to go and dispose of a load of stones himself. So
we'd be sent off to do that before being released, and very quickly
there arose an unofficial standard dumping ground - under the hedge that
ran alongside the field. Thenceforth, anyone sent on "stone-picking"
simply sat under the hedge for an hour or so (probably smoking) and then
filled his bucket from the vast heap of stones piled up there. Fifteen
minutes later the stones would be back on the heap ready for next time.

Them were the days.

Pete